November 23, 2012

A coup-in-waiting

While the opposition is still fighting for contested seats in the
future parliament, the current Verkhovna Rada surreptitiously railroaded
through a piece of legislation that opens a new way to change the
Constitution.
The law on referendum, voted by parliament on Nov. 6,
regulates the procedure for approval on key issues for the nation’s
governance, including changes to the Constitution.
In response, two members of the opposition moved to cancel the new law because it violates the Constitution.
The
law allows for fundamental decisions to be decided by popular
referendum. It also says “the president of Ukraine is obliged to call an
all-Ukrainian referendum by public initiative.”
To do that,
three million citizens have to sign a petition in two-thirds of
Ukraine’s 26 oblasts, with at least 100,000 signatures in each.
The parliament is also allowed to call a referendum.
This
major piece of legislation comes after the president and his allies
realized they cannot get 300 votes in parliament, the constitutional
majority required to change the country’s supreme document.
The work on rewriting changes to the Constitution was initiated by President Viktor Yanukovych in May.
Losing
popularity and therefore his chances for re-election in 2015, the
president is believed to favor a model where the president (or prime
minister) is elected by parliamenand retains the powers of head of
state.
What’s more, the law could pave the way for public approval
to entering the Russia-led customs union, a Kremlin’s goal that would
spell the end to Ukraine’s European dream.
Viktor Medvedchuk, the
former head of President Leonid Kuchma’s administration with close
connections to Putin, has for months advertised the idea of people’s
power by referendum.
Many countries use popular initiatives to give ordinary citizens greater say over where their country is headed.
But
for such a system to function, several conditions must be met: the
political process must be treated with respect, public debate should be
genuine and supported by an independent media and, most importantly,
voting should be free and fair.
Ukraine fulfills none of these
criteria, thus making the law a tool to establish a tyranny of the
majority – and a dubious majority at that.
This dangerous law has
been approved while most opposition leaders are still deciding what
they are going to do about rigged results in a number of single-mandate
districts.
But this law is a much greater threat and needs to be reversed.